Tyler Evan Locklear (born November 24, 2000) is an American professional baseball player in the

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West division. The team joined the American League ...

organization of

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

. A utility infielder, and power hitter, Locklear is known for the accolades he achieved during his redshirt freshman year with VCU. Locklear was the first player in the history of the conference to win both the

Atlantic 10 Conference The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. The A-10's member schools are located in states mostly on the United States Eastern ...

Player and Rookie of the Year in the same season, while also attaining freshman and national All-American honors. Locklear was selected in the second round of the

2022 Major League Baseball draft The 2022 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft took place on July 17–19, 2022, in Los Angeles. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. The draft order was based on the reverse order of the 2021 ...

Early life

Locklear grew up in Abingdon, Maryland, northeast of the Baltimore metropolitan area, where he played high school baseball for

Archbishop Curley High School Archbishop Curley High School is a Roman Catholic boys' high school in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore in the United States, within the City of Baltimore. It is affiliated with the Conventual Franciscan religious order. It is the broth ...

. At Archbishop Curley, Locklear was named a 2018 Under Armour All-American, and earned All-Conference, State, and Metro honors, earning a .500 batting average during his senior year. Upon graduation, Locklear was ranked as the fifth best player to come out of Maryland.

College

Locklear became an immediate starter for VCU ahead of his freshman season. During the

2020 NCAA Division I baseball season The 2020 NCAA Division I baseball season, play of college baseball in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I level, began on February 14, 2020. On March 12, it was announced that the ...

, Locklear appeared in all 15 games for the Rams, earning himself eight runs batted in, and scoring 15 total runs. The season prematurely ended in mid-March 2020 due to the onset of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. As a result, Locklear was redshirted and retained four more years of collegiate eligibility. During his redshirt freshman season, Locklear helped the Rams earn a 38–16 record, their best since 2015, an Atlantic 10 regular season and a conference tournament championship, as well as a two-seed berth in the Starkville Regional of the 2021 NCAA Division I baseball tournament, their highest seeding in the tournament since 2001. Locklear the Atlantic 10 in runs (69), RBIs (66), on-base percentage (.515), and walks (46), all marks that rank in the top 10 in VCU history for a single season. Additionally, Locklear hit 16 home runs, which was a VCU freshman record, the second-most in a single season in program history, and tied for the most in the Atlantic 10 during the 2021 season. Locklear earned three A-10 Rookie of the Week honors for the season. Upon the conclusion of the

2021 NCAA Division I baseball season The 2021 NCAA Division I baseball season play of college baseball in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I level, began on February 19, 2021. The season progressed through the regula ...

, Locklear achieved numerous conference and national recognition. Locklear was named to the Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team, All-Atlantic 10 team, All-State team, ABCA Atlantic All-Region First Team, and was named a freshman All-American by '' Collegiate Baseball'',

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, and the NCBWA. Locklear earned national All-American honors by ''Collegiate Baseball'' (third-team), NCBWA (second-team), Baseball America (second-team), and the American Baseball Coaches Association (first-team). He collected three individual honors including the VaSID Rookie of the Year (best college baseball freshman in Virginia), the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year, and the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year. After the 2021 season, he played

collegiate summer baseball Collegiate summer baseball leagues are amateur baseball leagues in the United States and Canada featuring players who have attended at least one year of college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility remaining. Generally, they operat ...

with the

Orleans Firebirds The Orleans Firebirds, formerly the Orleans Cardinals, are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Orleans, Massachusetts. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in the league's East Division. The Firebirds play t ...

of the

Cape Cod Baseball League The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over one thousan ...

, and received the league's 10th player award. Ahead of his redshirt sophomore year, Locklear was included on the 55-player preseason watchlist for the Golden Spikes Award. He was also named a preseason All-American by Collegiate Baseball, D1Baseball, and ''Perfect Game''.

Professional career

The

selected Locklear with the 58th overall selection in the

. He signed with the Mariners on July 23, 2022, and made his professional debut with the Single-A Modesto Nuts that same year. He played two games on August 5 and 6 2022 for the

Arizona Complex League Mariners The Arizona Complex League Mariners are a Rookie-level affiliate of the Seattle Mariners, competing in the Arizona Complex League of Minor League Baseball. The team plays its home games at Peoria Sports Complex in Peoria, Arizona. The team is ...

on Rookie-level and later returned to the Modesto Nuts. In the 2023 season he played for the

Everett AquaSox The Everett AquaSox are a Minor League Baseball team in Everett, Washington. The team is a member of the Northwest League and is affiliated with the Seattle Mariners. The AquaSox play their home games at Funko Field, which has a seating capacity o ...

in Advanced A.

References

External links

Tyler Locklear
at VCU Athletics {{DEFAULTSORT:Locklear, Tyler 2000 births Living people All-American college baseball players Arizona Complex League Mariners players Baseball players from Maryland Everett AquaSox players Minor league baseball players Modesto Nuts players Orleans Firebirds players People from Abingdon, Maryland VCU Rams baseball players